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The Failure of the Super Committee

Here we are again facing another failed budget negotiation between the two parties. Another tremendous failure – even if a measure is passed. No party will claim a win, which seems that is the number one agenda. That instead of acting in favor of the country, the American people and the electors that put the Super Committee in power. The question the press has been pounding now, over and over is: should the members of the Super Committee be reelected? The logical, sensible and sensitive answer is a plain NO! But what party are we talking about? Right hands will answer get out the democrats! But on the opposite end, the answer will be, send the republicans back home.

Once again, I don’t care of believe what flag one party or the other one wears. Whether moderate, left or right, republican or democrat, all of them flip – flop with their claimed mentality or ideology and much more when it comes to vote for a bill. Issues and the answers that fix them is my train of thought. However, in this case, as many of the recent ones, I find that republicans are throwing a fit for the sake of insuring reelection. No taxes is their ticket, they think . . . but only an idiot will believe that such is what is needed to address all the complex issues we are facing. The irony of the case is that every single person against any increase in taxes, will state that such will counter work hiring. Hello? If I am a business owner (which I was and am not any longer and guess why?) All I will have to do to compensate for having higher taxes, is to make absolutely sure that my goods or services, will be competitive to the fierce market. A market that is eager, willing and capable of sacrificing something for the sake of staying in business. Even if my taxes are increased (nope, I don’t even make 250K), which I hate the idea, will be totally acceptable because I know well, we are in dire need of fixing many things, among them our deficit and debt. If I would be a million plus earner would be the same. After all, the worse it could do, is to slightly change my lifestyle but just for a time being. Once the country finds a balanced sheet, businesses will go as they were previous to the Bush administration when just about everything was booming quite well. So, yes to taxes! Unless people want to have the cake and eat it. In order to get all we need and want, we have no other choice but to pay for it’s cost. Frankly, I believe a strong and healthy nation offers much better possibilities, even if I am not having the greatest income I wish. The way our country is, there is no true winner. Perhaps only those that have hefty accounts overseas are winners regardless of higher taxes or not. They will remain as rich as they are today.

Cutting benefits to those who are retired and depend on those social services, services that they pay for and work their ass for them; simply is unacceptable. And cutting The Defense Department budget? On who’s mind can that be a positive move? Today when the political and social unrest in the world threatens all nations of the world? If you need a new prescription for your glasses today, don’t wait any longer because the known threats around the world are far worse than they were when the cold war. Perhaps the main difference is that there is no super power threatening us, but what about several nations together? Something that can happen at any moment since the Arab world is much more than unhappy with the US and such will not change while having a strong presence in the region. Soooo is the alternative to move out of the region for the sake of saving tons of dollars and allow the Arabs to become happy? No! Having arm forces that cost multi billion dollars every year is not my wish at all. But the US has taken a role that cannot be withdrawn just like that. Therefore we have no choice but to keep balance, as much as we can – around the world. Perhaps awaken the world to realize that for as long as we remain focused on the “well being” of other nations, instead of their own, we’ll remain screwed. Perhaps Aldous Huxley was much more than a visionary and what we need to do is to have a single country with a single government to rule the entire world. Forgive me for this fantasy but frankly I believe there are much more important issues and agendas on sight. Such as we must watch more closely what our planet is telling us before it is too late.

The worse of this failure is the fact that people’s confidence has been undermined once again and now for more than a decade! And if we don’t change this soon, who knows where we are going to land. No wonder crime has been growing across the planet in disproportional numbers and no country has a good hand to control it. Basically between the people’s division that we see in almost every country in the world for one reason or the other one and the political struggles, are destroying the order that almost every single person wishes to keep. But not many are doing something about it but to complain that they are suffering and also have needs. So is the rest of the world! But we, the US still are in a privileged place that at some point will no longer be and then, what are we going to do? Blame Obama? Or the Republican party or the Democrats?

Perhaps the only people worth any consideration today are our troops overseas and every single person that is Occupying a place to demand a the dialog that politicians are refusing to withhold. Even between their own selves. What a shame!

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2 responses to “The Failure of the Super Committee”

You’re absolutely correct – the number one agenda item was to ‘claim a win’, not solve the problem. Lately, I’ve come to expect that sort of childish mentality from Congress, but I had hoped the ‘super committee’ would be able to rise above that. They had as much political cover as is reasonably possible these days, but still were unable to rise above their party’s demagoguery.
However, what saddens me most is the paradox that everyone hates congress, but loves their own elected members. As long as that mentality is in place, the prospects for real change in the caliber of our government are dim.

Hello, Isis! Thank you for your writings – They are helping me recognize things about the times we find ourselves in – you always provoke my thinking!!!

I wonder whether the “Super-committee” was designed for failure from the start – as a mechanism to force the across-the-board cuts that no one in Congress wanted to affix their names to. In any case, the people who need to dialogue now are not our politicians – particularly the Congress; they have proven their ethical, if not moral, intransigence in the interest of their lust for power and money – it is “we the people”.

The Occupy movement has suficient potential to be the alarm clock to awaken the public from its slumber. I hope that we will not need the earthquake of a Mohamed Bouazizi, or worse, a June 4 1989 Incident (Tiananmen), to jolt the public out of bed. Before we reach such crisis, I hope that the moderate, rational voting populace will awaken to the danger at the gates, and speak, loudly and clearly, to our “leaders”. We have to convey the message that we will support, accept no less than, and that we demand both:

~ fair revenue policy, including progressive tax rates and elimination of tax loopholes for corporations and wealthy individuals
~ fair deficit reduction, including some reductions in social insurance for the short-term, until such time that the deficit is brought under control.

We are not stupid. We know that both ends of the budget equation must be addressed. Politicians simply play to the emotions of their voters in trying to generate public support for their agendas, when in fact, their job is to support the publicʻs agenda. And I suspect that for the silent majority of voters, our agenda is to get our economy back into fair, equitable growth for all us.